One of the niftier features of the Palm Pre is its Touchstone inductive charger, which recharges your phone wirelessly while holding it in place magnetically. No slots, no contacts, no muss, no fuss. What could be better? more pics after the fold
How about making it mobile?
As you can see from the attached photos, a good friend of iSmashPhone.com did just that in his BMW. After mounting a Touchstone on the center console, he ran a Sprint car charger with a mini-USB connector from the Touchstone to the car’s electrical system. (The cigarette lighter will work just as well.)
Voila! No spiderweb of charging cables, no fumbling with plugs at stop lights, no fear a sudden hard turn will fling your phone into the back seat, and — most importantly of all — no more worries about your Pre’s battery dying while you’re closing that big business deal on I-95 South.
Bottom line: this is how all in-car phone chargers should work.
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nice skin on you pre is it a ZAGG?
Is the radiation safe?
I was looking to do this in my car as well, however I was wondering: Are the magnets in the Touchstone strong enough to hold the phone so it doesn’t go flying off during turns?
nice. but i still wouldn’t mod my bimmer for a phone.
wire goes under hand break into the mid console. it can be removed at any time.
No problems, but did not do any official G tests
nice job! Is that a post 2006 convertible?
i think it’s 2008 335 convertible
looks like it would be a pain in the @$$ to look down at the gps tho
How about mounting it in your Pinto, or will that mess the whole ‘I got a mullet, because it is Classy’ tude your toting?
I would never but that in my bimmer that looks tacky as hell!
I was told bestskin
tackier then having a wire running from your cig lighter? you don’t own a bimmer.
R U SERIOUS?
I stuck my touchstone to my dash with industrial strength double sided tape in the middle circular depression. Works flawlessly. Does not get knocked off from any hard turns, although i have knocked it off a few times with my hand, I have to get used to it there. It is pretty dope to be able to listen to music and use the gps and take phone calls without having to worry about pausing or anything, i use the inline jack in my car and my bluetooth headset at the same time, works exactly how i want it to.
I use same setup in my prius, but the sprint charger gets very hot and occasionally cycles on and off. Has anyone else noticed this?
send us your pics so we can post
bretov said no issues so far, how long are you in a car?
Also, send us your pics we will post them
mmmmyes. mmmm. mmmm. i do say that would look raaaath-aaa tacky on MY BMW. Right Luke? Shall we retire in our smoking jackets to the cigar room now? mmmmmyeassss… raaaath-aa….
dood.
Is the magnet strong enough to mount vertically? Would like to mount the Touchstone on my dash so I can see the Pre while driving.
Looks like the device is installed/placed 180 degrees backwards. Makes it difficult to see screen pointing down toward the front of the car.
I asked a Palm rep about doing this exact thing in my car when i bought my phone. He told me that it COULD work, but that the 12v output of my cigarette lighter wouldn’t be enough power to really charge the phone as intended. True/False? Does it just charge more slowly? Or does it work just like being plugged in a normal outlit?
Mine seems to charge fine, but just gets very hot after 30 min, then cycles off and on like it overheats.
lmao frank. had me dying saying that outloud
If you are wearing your tinfoil hat, it is safe. Otherwise, dangerous; very, very dangerous.
what happens when you spill your coffee on it? any chance of electric shock or worse? because that would really be a bummer…..
I plugged an off market car charger with a mini charging end ( not sure of correct terminology ) that plugged into the palm pre charging plug on the phone. It charged fine. I read your article about having the touchstone wired to your BMW, I loved the concept. I plugged this car charger into the touchstone magnet but all it did was cycle on and off repeatedly. So i bought another charger which was car lighter to USB set-up and plugged the Original PRE USB cable into the second car charger and into the touchstone and again it just kept cycling on/off and actually ended up slowly discharging the phone. You article suggests that the cigarette car charger to touchstone should work. You did mention that you had a sprint charger, so my question is will the Palm pre car charger which has a USB connection plug into the Tstone and charge the palm without the cycling problem.
I’d like to know this before I order yet another car charger for the Palm. The touchstone is great technology and fits perfectly in my 520i BMW and I am hoping the cycling issue is only a matter of using a Sprint car to USB charger. If I can get this to work I will then hardwire it and make it a custom install.
Please ADVISE….. John
Has to be Sprint branded not palm and not other brands – mini-USB
At least this is the info we got
Thanks – I don’t understand however, why a Sprint mini-USB car charger would work on the TStone and not the PALM pre mini USB car charger, which would seem more logical in terms of any compatibility charging and electrical flowing issues.
I would also be interested in seeing or reading how the hard wire install happens. Is the Car charger just being snipped off and the bear wires spliced into an appropriate car circuit or is there another electrical stitching that occurs.
All support is appreciated as I still think conceptually the idea is HOT……………….J
Yeah, I do not know why Sprint charger only.
Also, charger was not cut, it was just plugged into middle console, it was fished through the hand break, so wires are not seen.
Great- I’ll send you picks on my mount, when it gets completed. Ordering SPRINT mini USB car charger today. Mine will sit on dash board right of steering wheel at equal level to radio component. Easy to see, easy to answer and GPS is looking right at you so no downward looking like other install…..J